


Masquerade

by Alex_E



Series: The Crown [2]
Category: Luke Cage (TV)
Genre: Drama, F/F, Love Triangles, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 15:44:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15464733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex_E/pseuds/Alex_E
Summary: Darius sees her watching them that is all she can do really. He understands.POV Darius





	Masquerade

He sees her watching. 

She is always watching them.

He watches her right back.

As every night the undisputed queen of Harlem is standing on the balcony, her dias  
overseeing the festivities on the dancefloor.  
Harlem's Paradise is a palace amidst the kingdom of Harlem.  
She leads the way in fashion with her sophisticated and elegant style.

At a section in a darkened corner, Hernan is whispering sweet nothings in his ear, they turn downright dirty with the promise of more. He feels the heat rising from within. Hernan places his hand on his leg. Unnoticeable to the public eye except for Mariah Stokes, she doesn't miss anything. 

He is aware of her gaze upon them, outwardly unmoved by the scene unfolding before her. However, Darius recognizes the way she clamped her jaw together, to quell the tears welling in her eyes. A lesser woman would have looked away by now. She stands tall, she stands proud.

Mariah reacted to him like he was an invasion of sorts, a presence she wasn't ready for.  
He dislikes the way she looks at Hernan, as though she has the ability...no, the worth to hold his attention.

She treated him like an adversary, a rival, he sees the irony in that. He could take her down, easily. Talk to Ridenhour and give her up. That is not him, oh no, never. And that is something Mariah never cares to see. He values integrity. He believes you cannot betray people for their freedom.

One day, Shades had called to talk to him and informed him that he was with Mariah. He couldn't deny that the news was hard to hear because of their past.  
He was out of prison now and still adjusting to civilian life. Shades brought him back into game.  
Both kept their respective distance for a short period. Then, they somehow had managed to turn back into their old habits.  
He wasn't so delusional to believe they could pick up right back where they left off. 

He had cared enough about his friend to actually talk with them and congratulate them both. It was sad for him, but it was mostly just joyful for them, and he didn't want to diminish their happiness. They were joined at the hip, he was no longer Shades and she was no longer Mariah but they were _shadesandmariah_ , _mariahandshades_ , …... _shadymariah_. 

He is not jealous, really he is not. Expect maybe a little bit. A little bit every now and again when his hands are all over her and he catches sight of them leaving together for the night He is not that kind of guy he does not want to be that guy.

And he is not jealous really.

For a few months everything seemed alright even if it was just in appearance.

Hernan’s smile became less frequent though, he did not spend as much time at the brownstone and he began to avoid Mariah’s private company. His boy was conflicted and was slowly losing his composure, shooting Arturo Rey and making mistakes left and right. His boy was unravelling all because of her. He holds her accountable for that. He would have his back. 

Then Busmaster (John, it's John,now) came along and that provided another level of drama.  
But that is all in the past and they are legit now.  
Tilda and John are esteemed guests, curled together in the vip area, openly celebrating their young love. 

She looks at him sometimes like he came between them. Like he broke up their happy home.  
He did not break up their happy home. Oh, Darius has done many, many things. He did not do that. At other times she gives him a curious stare, one he cannot decipher. If he didn’t knew better he would mistake that look for a silent apology. 

Mariah knew, from the moment he met her. She knew who he was and she was making her dismay of him known at every opportunity;

“Go,”

“Leave,”

“If you ever bust into my office like that again...”

His favourite dismissal has got to be the one when she gestures him away with her hand. 

Hernan didn't say anything but the open hostility Mariah showed him, confirmed his beliefs. Hernan was still his. She knew it too.  
For all his bravado to the world as ‘Shades,’ Hernan never mastered the art of concealing his emotions. His expressive eyes showed them all. 

“Che we gotta bounce man we got the drop on Flint.” Shades was ecstatic, brown eyes glittered dangerously, full of excitement and passion.

"Oh. Wait, didn't you and Mariah have dinner plans tonight?"

“Mariah gets it. She understands the game, she knows how it gets."

He spoke about her like she was just another broad not the woman he loved enough once to marry. Then he noticed the ‘golden boy ‘ Alex was trailing her around obediently, reverently, determinately.

He notices the venomous glares Hernan throws at the golden boy’s way and the humiliation behind it. He never says anything though. He would never verbalise that kind of sorrow. Darius would never ask him to. Oh no, Darius knows he didn't break them up.

One afternoon Hernan pulled him close and kissed him. It didn't surprise him.  
He had to smile at that memory, he had been so stunned. He had finally been starting to feel like himself again. Darius closed his eyes and didn't stop him when his hands reached for his face, gently caressing his cheek. He didn't open his eyes when he felt him kiss his cheek softly, and then whispered his name. He didn't open his eyes when he felt the sensation of a soft kiss on his lips. He didn't stop him when he deepened the kiss and was struck about the passion with which he responded to his kiss. He finally opened his eyes when the kiss ended;

“You took your time."

"I needed to try… to do the right thing, I guess. You didn't fight for me."

"I gave you everything I was, B. If after that I needed to 'fight for you', then you were never mine to begin with."

"Fair enough. I was the one that held back. I'm doing the fighting now. I'm doing the apologizing."

Hernan was eager to whisk him away, to the suburbs, so they could build a life together.  
By that time the press was already over ‘Harlem’s power couple’, with the headlines, the sponsors came and that provided an opportunity.  
An opportunity to raise themselves higher and be in a position to provide for the community.

Al because of politics and the power of an image. This is what Mariah and him understand and Hernan doesn't care about. Hernan would have been content at running a nightclub. He wanted to be more than a gangster though. For people like Mariah and himself the saying holds; ‘good enough isn't good enough when it can be better.”

So he told Hernan to stay. Because Harlem is bigger than them. Because he had read Machiavelli and the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the rest or the one. Right? 

Something was different after Mariah reclaimed her seat on the city council. He could guess what, he had been there. He had not said anything to Hernan though, because he thought for once Mariah deserved better. He knew Alex and Mariah had given into temptation (again), he just knew it. He had been there too;

"I love you, Darius." He felt his hot breath on his neck as they gently embraced each other. They were resting naked in his bed, he never meant for it to happen like this, but it was inevitable. His eyes were clouded and his body was trembling, coming down from their climax. He caressed his face with the back of his hand and kissed him softly.

"I love you, Hernan" he found himself answering. As he spoke he couldn't help but feel sorry for Mariah. Because it was wrong. Right? Because Hernan was taken and he wasn't this person and Hernan wasn't either. They were good people and Hernan had a partner, and she loved him. But as his lips searched for his again, begging for Darius to hold him, he knew he was not lying. As wrong as this was, he loved him. 

She was suffering under Hernan’s silence. His boy was playing on her vulnerability, hitting her where it hurts. At times he felt bad for Mariah, she didn't deserve this, nobody did. Therefore he treats her fairly. He is not going to add insult to injury. Still, he couldn't help but feeling a flash of bitterness where he thought it was karma. Mariah deserved the silence. He pushed the thought away, because how useful is that, really? How much could he possibly get out of that? 

Lately there has been less animosity between them. She had been trying to be friendly, he returned the friendly gestures, neither of them bought it. Hernan did though. Perhaps if things were different they would have gotten along, or not.  
Commonors don’t get too close to royalty anyway.

He saw Alex approaching Mariah, he notices the way his gaze went immediately to her eyes… they seemed to lose themselves for a few minutes, neither daring to break the spell by talking.

At least he knows they didn't betray his friend for the hell of it. At least he knows it was or is the real thing for them. He is not sure Hernan knows that.

Hernan was still breathing down his neck lost in the feeling, mumbling in Spanish now.  
He could feel his hand sliding dangerously higher over his leg. It was getting harder to deny him.  
Hernan gave him a seductive smile as he motions for him to stand up and follow him.

He let him go, he let his best friend, his lover, his partner of 20 plus years go, because he was still in prison and Hernan wasn’t. Hernan would die for him, he needed him to live. So he set him free. He loved Hernan and there was nothing anyone could do to make him stop.  
People don't get too many second chances in life, he is thanking every deity in existence that he has his love back in his life. He is eternally grateful even if their love is hidden in the dark. 

Although sometimes he hates Hernan for longing after Mariah and disregarding his feelings.  
Hernan felt it was his responsibility to be there for her, even if Mariah was no longer his to take care of.  
Sometimes he hates Hernan for looking right through him. For being the sun, the moon and the stars all in one. Mostly, he hates Mariah for thinking she was the only one who sacrificed something important for Harlem, for thinking she is the only one in pain. The only one maintaining an appearance. 

Even so, he can’t find it in him to resent her. Behind the masquerade all he sees is a queen brought down by her humanity. 

He hopes one day she will be as happy as she’s pretending to be.  
The day would come when they could love each other out in the open. If prison taught Darius one thing it was patience. He was a patient man. He would wait and play along.

Because he loves Hernan.

And he understands Mariah.


End file.
